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The frustrating Blue Jays seem intent on teasing their fanbase until the very end. On Thursday at Rogers Centre, behind starter Marco Estrada the Jays beat the first wild-card Yankees 4-0 to stay within five games of the second wild-card M’s.

The Jays earlier had lost outfielder Nori Aoki to the flu, had to sit DH Kendrys Morales who was under the weather, lost pitcher Taylor Cole to a broken toe and have 13 players currently on the disabled list — yet they took two of three from the Yankees while facing $63-million worth of starting pitchers in the series.

It’s daunting. The Jays need a win streak to even crawl back to .500, but have shown zero ability to put any such streak together this year. They are 10-6 over their past 16 games and with 48 games remaining, if they go 10-6 three more times, that would give them 84 wins for the year, still not enough for any post-season.

The wild-card race is a mirage despite the numbers, but if you are a baseball fan, there is still entertainment value in what the Jays are doing.

Jays’ righthander Marco Estrada is in the process of turning his second half around following a stretch of seven starts in which he failed to work five innings in six of those games — from June 13 through July 21. Against the Yankees on Thursday, he threw seven shutout innings, his third straight quality start.

Estrada had lost five decisions in a row over 11 starts since his last win on May 27 against the Rangers. He allowed five hits and three walks, while striking out six against the Yankees and has posted a 1.71 ERA in his last 21 innings.

When did it turn around? By the time Estrada toed the rubber in Chicago on July 31, the trade deadline had passed. He knew he had survived and had not been dealt away by GM Ross Atkins and the Jays. He never wanted to be traded.

The veteran righthander, slated to be a free agent at the end of the year, promptly went out in Chicago and completed seven innings for the first time in 37 days, shutting down the White Sox on one run. Five days later against the powerful lineup of the first place Houston Astros, Estrada allowed just three runs, in pitching seven innings for the second straight game.

“There may not be anything to it, but he was the hot topic of trade rumours for the longest time,” manager John Gibbons said. “His last (three) starts have been after the trade deadline. Maybe that was on his mind a little bit, I don’t know. You think about it, his first start was after the deadline. He was still here. There may not be anything to it, but it may have eased his mind. I do know they all enjoy playing here, that’s for sure. It’s tough to be uprooted.”

With one out in the second, Ezequiel Carrera, a late replacement for Morales, doubled to deep right-centre field. Attempting to keep him close, Gray whirled and fired a pickoff attempt off the glove of Didi Gregorius into centre field. With Carrera on third, Gray fielded a chopper from Ryan Goins with his glove and scooped it towards Gary Sanchez. Carrera was by the catcher before he could spin and tag, tapping the plate with his left hand.

With speed seemingly the theme of the night for the Jays, it came from an unlikely source in the third inning. Jose Bautista walked and on a full-count pitch to Russell Martin took off for second, stealing the base. Josh Donaldson then lobbed a single into left with Bautista beating the throw from Aaron Hicks and Donaldson hustling to second on the throw to the plate. Go-go Blue Jays.

In the fourth inning the Jays added a third run on a Steve Pearce base hit, a sacrifice and a run-scoring single by Kevin Pillar. Finally in the seventh, facing lefty Chasen Shreve, Bautista put an exclamation point on it the old-fashioned way, slamming a solo homer into the bullpen in left.

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